On the speed of symbolic network analysis of Joule heating in ic interconnects

Simulation of the temperature distribution in a regular IC interconnect network is achieved by means of an analytical-symbolic approach. Analytical Joule heating solutions along each interconnect can provide accurate solutions with far fewer nodes than numerical solutions. Multiple evaluations, including iterating temperature-dependent thermal conductivity to achieve a self-consistent solution, scale linearly with the number of nodes and hardly affect the total solution time. The necessary input information is contained in commented netlist files, similar to SPICE input format. Memory consumption, CPU time, and solutions of the new network calculation method compare favourably to a finite element analysis using Abaqus.